Security at AMS
 

Hi All,

I got message from AMS Facebook and he told me that gate security screening soon to be disappear. You will no longer to be screened at the gate. They will be relocated at new central security checkpoints. Isn't that great news?

http://www.schiphol.nl/Travellers/At...alSecurity.htm

They will be completed sometime in June 2015. You will no longer to be screened at the gate. You don't have worry about secondary screening at the gate anymore. Long overdue!!!!

Sounds like bad news for anyone trying to do a same-plane turnaround on BA LON-AMS.

For me it depends entirely on whether or not I will continue to be interrogated. I have stopped all flying AMS-US because of these idiotic shenanigans. It's none of their g*******d business how I can afford a business or first class ticket.

If I don't respond to interrogations from authorities in my own country, I'm certainly not going to deal with it at AMS (and support it with the taxes from my ticket).

I think that this will make things worse. My understanding (although it may have changed) is that currently, some of the gates at AMS have body scanners and some have WTMDs. My guess is that with the change, everyone departing on non-Schengen flights will be directed to body scanners.

Also, I could imagine that lines could become really long if there are fewer open checkpoints for which passengers are sent to body scanners.

Overall the lines will become much much shorter because passengers arriving from "safe" countries (Schengen/EU/certain others) will no longer have to be re-screened.

Excellent point.

While this is part and parcel of a plan to waive rescreening for a select segment of non-Schengen-originating passengers, and to speed up things for some transit passengers in some ways, and to reduce screening costs -- the variance in times and the length of the longest lines at AMS will almost certainly increase as a result of a greater shift to more centralization of screening checkpoints. Overall, the time to process any given passenger transiting AMS should drop, but that doesn't mean it will happen; nor does it mean that it will happen without resulting in greater variance in times and/or without longer lines.

As it is, with the increased rudeness of AMS passport control, the longer taxi times after touchdown at AMS, the crazy rush at AMS even on a Sunday morning, for me AMS has rather quickly gone from being one of my favorite transit airports in Europe to being an airport I no longer fancy and sometime even actively try to avoid. Centralized transit screening for non-Schengen to non-Schengen flights is going to mess things up for some passengers, more so for some routes and times than for other routes and times.

Why should the rudeness of passport control matter if you are "purely" in transit?

I do agree with your sentiment though - in previous years I have generally gotten stamped into Schengen without a word, which now only happens occasionally in the Romance-speaking areas, but at AMS they have seemingly started grilling almost everyone; it's almost as bad as the US

Transits at AMS that involve crossing from Schengen to non-Schengen flights or crossing from non-Schengen to Schengen flights involve passport control.

Does anyone know whether the US will be one of the countries for which originating flights will no longer need to go through security? Will this only be on flights to non-Schengen areas, or will passengers on connecting flights to Schengen areas also not need to re-clear security?

I agree with AMS being a difficult airport to clear customs. I had an overnight layover at AMS and was given a hard time at passport control because I had yet to book my hotel room. I had planned to book it at the last minute at the airport but had trouble getting wifi access in the area of the airport prior to passport control. I was eventually allowed to enter into the country, but I have never found this difficulty with any other entry into Schengen.

AMS border control is very strict. You have show your passport & boarding pass before you enter non-Schengen or Schengen areas. If you connecting the flights in EU or if you leave from Europe. You are required to show your boarding pass.

Not a frequent Traveller to AMS but went there in May on a non stop from EWR with two other people. When I got to passport control the agent looked at me, stamped the passport and gave it back to me while motioning for the next person without saying a word. The two with me had the same experience upon arrival and I noticed all the agents were basically operating the same way.

Security at the gate was painless when we left. Just two questions (did we travel to any countries outside the Netherlands and did we check any bags).

Maybe we were just fortunate at the time.